We reached Split, which is about a four-hour busride from Dubrovnik, in the early afternoon. The drive followed the coastline the entire way - we drove along cliffsides overlooking the gorgeous Adriatic Sea, surrounded by blue hills, for four straight hours, only stopping for a border check as we passed through Bosnia and Herzegovina. Yeah, life is difficult.
Split is more bustling than Dubrovnik is - it's a very busy port city, and there are ferries in and out all over the place. Dubrovnik's old city was also clearly marked by the city walls and by the peninsula that it stands on. Split is more of a rambling city, and the old city blurs into modern streets and buildings. What's really neat about Split's old city, however, is that it is all more or less built in the ruins of Diocletian's palace. For anyone not up on their Ancient Roman history (I mean, who isn't?), Diocletian was emperor of Rome from 284-305, when he abdicated the throne, basically because his reforms were very unpopular. He retired to the Dalmation Coast, so the Ancient Romans knew that Croatia was a top-notch holiday destination. Vendors sell souvenirs and crafts in the palace's subterranean passages now, which is just wicked cool.
Here's a look across the harbor at Split - the steeple that you can see is the belltower of St. Domnius, which we climbed for gorgeous views of the city.
This is a close-up of St. Domnius (or part of it - sometimes I like to pretend that I can take artistic photographs). You can see the Roman-inspired architecture.
It was two days before Easter, so there was an installation of the Last Supper in the square outside of St. Domnius.
Looking over Split from the top of the belltower - do you see why I keep going on about how gorgeous Croatia is? The entire Dalmation Coast is a postcard!
View out over the harbor - the massive boats with the unprounceable name are the same as the ferry that we took from Bari to Dubrovnik. But seriously, can you imagine living here and seeing this every day? I wonder if people ever start to take it for granted? I certainly hope not.
Looking up the rickety staircase of the St. Domnius belltower - as terrified as they make me, I seem to have a habit of finding Europe's more questionable staircases. This one had massively steep steps and very low ceilings, as I found when I cracked my head on a brick. That was fun.
This is not Merlin, as I had sincerely hoped that it was. Just take a moment to think about how absolutely bad-ass Split would be if it was home to a giant statue of Merlin. I know, right? Instead, this is Gregory of Nin, who introduced religious services in Croatian in 926.
We woke up very early in order to catch the 6:15 a.m. ferry from Split to nearby Brač Island, and were lucky enough to watch the day dawn over Split. There's nothing quite like being on the water in the early morning, when it's still cold enough to see your breath, and seeing the sun start to peek over purple hills, bathing everything in a rosy-golden light.
After a harrowing taxi ride over the winding, hilly road (there's only one) that cuts across Brač, we arrived at the beautiful little town of Bol. Check out the glittering action on the water here.
We picked our way over some fairly treacherous ground in search of Zlatni Rat, or the Golden Cape, a beautiful, hidden gem of a beach in Bol. There were some very sharp rocks, and we had some very unhappy feet afterwards!
The Golden Cape itself more than made up for our rather painful trek there - a white, pebbly beach on a peninsula surrounded by gorgeous, clear, aquamarine waters. It was incredibly, incredibly beautiful, and we had it entirely to ourselves. Never did I ever imagine myself lying in the sun on an island in the Adriatic Sea, worrying about absolutely nothing but just being. It was amazing.
Finding our cab to get back to the port on the other side of the island proved to be a bit of a kerfuffle, and our driver quite literally flew over the mountain roads. She was a champion, and we made our ferry back to Split right on time. After a relaxed lunch (everything about Croatia was relaxed. It was wonderful.) and one last gelato run, we parted ways - Sarah B. and I headed to Zadar, a bit farther north, while other Sarah and Caitlin left for Zagreb, Croatia's capital, which is in the north-west part of the country. We'd booked different flights back to London the next day, so we had officially reached the end of our adventuring together. What a trip it was.
Croatia taught me a lot of things about travelling. I definitely saw the advantages to waking up and getting an early start in the morning. That has always been my preferred method, anyway, but after watching three Croatian sunrises, I was absolutely convinced. The morning is a beautiful time - it's so quiet and calm because most of the world is still in bed, and you feel a certain sense of community with those few souls who are up and about with you. And the sunrise itself - the transition from purply-grey to the pale oranges and pinks that proceed the sunrise, and then watching the first rays of liquid gold light crest over the Croatian hills - there is nothing like it.
I also learned to relax in Croatia. Coming from tourist Italy, where everyone was rushing and jostling on the pavement and where people talked quickly and loudly, Croatia was quite literally a breath of fresh air. We spent a large chunk of our first morning in Dubrovnik sitting in the sun at a cafe, drinking cappuccinos, and it was absolutely wonderful. We had vague plans of what we wanted to do, but we weren't terribly worried about following them, and we didn't have to rush from one site to another in order to get everything in like we did in Italy. Not that I didn't enjoy Italy - I absolutely loved it. But our time in Croatia was purely for enjoyment. And we were much more flexible. Everything in Italy had to go exactly to plan - train times, museum entrances, what have you. In Croatia we realized that sitting by the water all evening with a bottle of wine was perfectly acceptable. In fact, it was absolutely fantastic. We were going to try to get to Plitvice Lakes National Park on our last day, which would have been stunningly beautiful but would require several hours on a bus, and we decided that going to Brač was just much more feasible. Am I disappointed that we didn't get to see the natiional park? Absolutely. But I also had an amazing time at Brač, and I don't regret the decision for an instant. Besides, now I have a reason to go back to Croatia and explore its beauty even more. And I am definitely okay with that.
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